Recently, as communication environments have rapidly been developed, many users have used a variety of portable electronic devices including a navigation device, a DMB device, a PMP, an MP3 player, a game device and a digital camera.
A portable electronic device should be used using a variety of digital contents suitable for the device. In order to use the digital contents, an authentication process should be first performed.
Among conventional portable electronic devices, a portable electronic device including a communication function for directly performing communication with an external authentication center can perform an authentication process for utilizing digital contents, but a portable electronic device which does not include a communication function for directly performing communication with an external authentication center is unlikely to perform an authentication process for utilizing digital contents.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system for collectively managing authentication processes of a variety of portable electronic devices of users.